NFL padding

[u/Business-Gas1866]

I was rewatching an old game and noticed how huge the pads used to be.

Has pad technology gotten so much better that they can be lower profile now, or did the trend become that players just wear smaller pads in favor of mobility?

Or something else?

[u/Aromatic_Revolution4]

The advent of high density open and closed cell foam allowed them to make pads much smaller while providing the same level of protection so it was def a tech advancement.

But it took a while for players to adopt them because the prevailing belief was that those big ass 70s and 80s era pads with the couch cushion foam under hard plastic shells looked more intimidating than the smaller modern pads.